E3 2014: Bloodborne preview

It’s the semi-official follow-up to deep, dangerous RPGs Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls. “Semi” because it’s not a direct sequel to either, but official anyway because the first two games had no sanctioned connection either aside from the involvement of director Hidetaka Miyazaki, which is recognised by the extraordinarily faithful Souls fanbase as a seal of authenticity. Miyazaki is back at the helm for this PlayStation 4 exclusive, and seems to have brought with him the shadows and pervasive sense of peril that characterised his earlier games.

How does it look?

Like a Souls game, only lifted from the series’ familiar medieval European fantasy setting and given a gloomy nineteenth century gothic makeover. A gameplay demonstration at PlayStation’s E3 booth showed just how closely Bloodborne sticks to the Souls formula - everything from the distinctive third-person animation to the weapon impact sound effects (a pleasingly anatomical wet slash) are identical, while vanquished enemies still seem to deliver souls (or some other currency) to our hero, and luminous items are scattered on corpses around the lamp-lit brickwork environments. In short - if you’re Souls devotee, this is the next game you can expect to lose yourself to.

But then the nature of being a Souls fan means you probably knew that already. So what’s different this time? The shifted setting pulls the series away from its thoroughly-mined knight-and-castles backdrop and opens out a world of cobbled Victorian possibilities. A looming full moon and warm lamp light give the game a Hammer horror glow, while a blunderbuss equipped in our hero’s off-hand suggests a world of industrial revolution tech. The root mechanics of this world might be familiar - cursed inhabitants, hopeless ruins - but its character will be shaped by these post-Enlightenment nuances in the same way the earlier games were marked by Dark Ages stone and fire.

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And of course there are still monsters. Aside from their uniquely challenging and rewarding structure, the Souls games are epitomised by a gloriously grim capacity for imagining fascinating beasts and creatures. Bloodborne is no different - even in the short section of the game shown off there were striking new enemies, including giant legless crows which crawled awkwardly on their wings before lunging with shocking speed, and a towering mini-boss made of twisted trees and sharp, stabbing branches.

Aside from the gun, which acts in effect like a powerful crossbow, hints at how combat might have change came in the form of a transforming primary weapon. This sword cleaver used fast, slashing attacks when folded like a giant cut-throat razor, but slower, harder blows when fully extended. Switching between the two can be done during combat, and there are other such transforming weapons in the game - veterans of the series’ meticulous fighting system will recognise the potential for new complexities when it comes to configuring loadouts, equipment, and battle tactics. Everyone else - just focus on how cool it is to have a giant folding sword.

Anything else?

It’s worth mentioning how impressive the world looks on PlayStation 4. The Souls games operate in a universe of a hundred shades of dark, and the added fidelity that the next generation system brings is welcome and obvious. One appropriately grim example is the character’s black garrick’s cloak. As well as flowing cloth mechanics, the cloak also features a short leather cape around our hero’s shoulders. As the hollowed inhabitants of this fallen world were butchered, the leather was splashed with blood - dark reflective patches on an already dark material, glistening with white moonlight and yellow lamp light as our man moved through the streets. It’s the kind of graphical breakthrough Souls fans are bound to appreciate.